Hoi An, Vietnam

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Hoi An- Well what can we say, its such a cute little town, streets lit up with lanterns, great little gift shops and market stalls.... and a truly lovely place to walk around... when of course its not thunderstorming and chucking it down with rain! our first day was dry and warm but the last two days... non stop pouring with rain but it hasnt stopped us from getting out and exploring hoi an! The streets are filled with tailor shops and i just couldnt resist the temptation of getting some suits made!

Today we endulged ourselves in a traditional vietnamese cooking class. it met our expectations completely. in our group was simon from manchester. We were all taken by our guide to the traditional markets in the morning to buy all our ingredients for the 4 course meal we were later to cook. armed with our shopping we boarded a boat which took us along the river to a local village where we met our chef and her sous chefs. despite the rain we boarded a row boat which took us to another great village where we had a go at making rice milk using traditional machinery. we tried rice cakes which were yum.. our row boat took us back to the village and it was time to COOK! they really put a lot of effort into making it a great experience for us, set up a station for us all to work at with all our spices and cutlery laid out. our chef Mitzy showed us how each course was done. 1st spring rolls with peanut hoisin sauce, 2nd fried pancake with a chilli and garlic dip (our FAVE i think!), 3rd vietnamese seafood salad with soy sauce and noodles and 4th vietnamese broth! we all shocked ourselves that we were able to make it (without burning our food and being able to flip our pancakes! and that the end result was GREAT!



Overall the class was a great thing to do here in vietnam and gave us a taster on local life and true vietnamese food!!! Thankfully they gave us the recipes of all 4 dishes so we can have a crack at them back home alongwith with some great chopsticks which are awesome!



Tomorrow we go on a tour to My Son Holy Land to explore some more of Hoi An and sadly leave on Monday....but looking forward to Hoi Chi Minh City, Saigon!! BRING IT ON!



xx hilly

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